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Monthly Archives: December 2016

“I enjoy passing things on. … If we’re not helping the world move forward, what are we doing?” Kobe says.

All of his living mentors –Michael Jordan, Jerry West, Bill Russell, Phil Jackson — have paid homage to him this year. So I change tacks and ask whether it feels good to know they are proud.Elite Youth Mitch Williams Jersey
He doesn’t budge.

“When I get a phone call from Bill Russell and I talk to Jerry West and we’re just kind of shooting the shit, that’s awesome because that means that these guys, who were my muses growing up, respect the way that I’ve carried on their legacy,” he says.

“But as a person, I do not need that. That does not complete me as a man or make me feel fulfilled, because I have their approval for what I do.”

“He kept pushing buttons. He kept getting frustrated. More and more frustrated.”

There’s no smirk as he says this. “Do you think he was trying to control you?”

Phil Jackson once wrote that Kobe was “un-coachable” and revealed that he’d urged Lakers management to trade him. After that, the two went on to win two more championships together.

“Yeah,” Kobe says. “Because that’s his job as a coach. To try and manage a team.”

“Well, no,” he says. “Thinking about it now. Yes, I am un-coachable, because you don’t have to manage me.”

He says he has a “beautiful” relationship with Jackson now. He has learned from the Zen Master’s emphasis on staying in the moment. This year, he says, he took Jackson’s advice in how to approach his farewell tour. Break it up into sections, Jackson told him. Appreciate each emotion for what it is, without making it bigger than the current moment.

He still doesn’t think Jackson ever needed to push his buttons like he did, though.

“I don’t play for the fame,” Kobe says. “I don’t play for the approvals. There is nothing you need to say to me. Just tell me what you need me to do. My love is already here for the game.”

A spokesman for Manning said that Ashley Manning was a client at the clinic and had a prescription, but declined to say for what.

“It makes me sick that it brings Ashley into it,” Manning said. “Any medical treatment that my wife received, that’s her business. That has nothing to do with me.”

Sly has since said that he fabricated stories of Manning’s involvement and said that claims he supplied athletes with performance-enhancing drugs are “false and incorrect.” Manning said on Sunday that he has never met Sly and had never heard of him before Saturday.

Offensive lineman Senio Kelemete was lined up in an eligible position as an extra blocker, as he had been on first down. That’s fine, but as a player wearing an ineligible number, he has to report to the referees that he’s lining up in an eligible position each and every time he does it. The Saints felt he did this, but the referees apparently didn’t.

If Kelemete did signal to the refs that he was supposed to be eligible, ESPN’s cameras didn’t catch it, but it also wouldn’t be the first time this season the NFL’s refs failed to notice a player signaling their eligibility.Elite Kids Kamalei Correa JerseyElite Mens Michael Carter-Williams Jersey On fourth-and-1, the Saints were set to run a play, but Detroit called a timeout. One problem: The Lions had already called all three timeouts.

Surprisingly, there is no penalty for an NFL team calling an additional timeout, with the exception of teams calling faux timeouts to freeze a kicker. (That’s considered unsportsmanlike conduct and worth a 15-yard penalty.) The only result is that the timeout isn’t rewarded. It’s the referees’ job to understand that there are no timeouts remaining and not stop play. Whichever referee blew the play dead made a mistake.

Elite Devon Kennard Jersey In zone-blocking schemes, many assignments are based on whether certain defenders are lined up to the strong or weak side of the formation. Through endless film study and mind-numbing repetition, the Dallas line instinctively identifies blocking assignments once the Mike is identified. In situations that call for double-teams, specialty blocks or blitz pickups, Frederick communicates using code words, hand signals or, sometimes, just a tap on the leg.

Recognizing that Smith, Leary and Free all have natural angles on their opponents, Frederick’s key read becomes nose tackle Linval Joseph — if the Viking infiltrates the backfield, he could blow up the play.

Wallace, who spent his first four NFL seasons in Pittsburgh, will be making his second trip to Heinz Field as a visiting player. His previous trip was with the Miami Dolphins in 2013, when he was held to 19 yards receiving on two catches.

According to Wallace, the location of Sunday’s game doesn’t hold any added significance to him because of the playoff implications. The Steelers (9-5) can clinch the AFC North by beating the Ravens. Baltimore (8-6) can take back first place in the division by sweeping Pittsburgh with one game remaining.

“We can play in the parking lot at Wal-Mart for all I care,” Wallace said. “It’s got to go down regardless.”

Wallace has only reached the playoffs once in his three seasons since leaving the Steelers. A victory Sunday would go a long way to make the postseason again.

For weeks — even the past couple of months — McCarthy has been telling anyone and everyone that Montgomery is no longer a receiver. Forget that he still wears No. 88; players can¡¯t change during the season.

And 162 rushing yards and two touchdowns sounds an awful lot like a running back.

Authentic Kids Joc Pederson Jersey Davante Adams and Randall Cobb, WR, Packers: When Aaron Rodgers doesn’t complete a single touchdown pass, Montgomery does as much damage as he did rushing and Jordy Nelson dominates offensive targets, it’s extremely difficult for secondary receivers like Adams and Cobb to succeed in fantasy. Combined, the two finished with two fantasy points on seven targets, and all of those points and six of the targets were Adams’. Unfortunately, Adams was heavily started in ESPN leagues, his 71.8 percent start rate ranking among the top 15 among wide receivers.Elite Kids Mike Daniels Jersey
Antonio Brown, WR, Steelers: Though there were other prominent wide receivers who scored fewer fantasy points than Brown in Week 15, his 99.55 start percentage in ESPN leagues (second highest among wide receivers behind Odell Beckham Jr.’s 99.59 percent) made his performance quite a bit more disappointing.

T.Y. Hilton, WR, Colts: His matchup wasn’t one of the better ones for a wide receiver in Week 15, but when you see that his Colts beat the Vikings 34-6, and that Andrew Luck managed 250 yards and two touchdowns passing, you’d have liked to have seen a greater fantasy point total than Hilton’s four on Sunday. He was started in 94.6 percent of ESPN leagues, fifth highest among wide receivers.

Some cops, and most civilians, find it easy to pull a trigger accidentally, and difficult to only pull it once. For Grossman, there emerges a concept known as bilateral symmetry above 145 beats per minute. If someone grabs a fistful of shirt with their left hand while holding a gun in the other, both hands can flinch at the same time, causing the person to accidentally fire their weapon.Authentic Brenton Bersin Jersey
A civilian with a gun, even one familiar with using it, basically has no chance of being in control, or accurately determining who should be shot and who should be allowed to live. And it isn’t some liberal suggesting that, but Grossman, the person trusted by many of the most elite killers in the world. The prosecutor Rodrigue kept talking about five pounds of pressure required to pull a trigger, but Grossman says that bilateral symmetry can produce up to 25 pounds of pressure in the shooter’s hand.

Remembering Junkin’s tentative delivery into infamy, Kinchen decided to fire his snap with a vengeance. He hit his target, and so did Vinatieri. Kinchen scanned the field for a yellow flag that wasn’t there, then let loose a primal, vein-popping scream. The snapper shouted an I-told-you-so at a smiling, nodding Belichick on the victory podium, then retreated back into retirement.

Mens Bruce Matthews Jersey Vinatieri? He scored the decisive points again in Belichick’s third Super Bowl victory the following year and then shocked the world by beating the coach in the race to No. 4.

Adam Vinatieri wanted the five years and $12 million the Colts were offering him in free agency after the 2005 season, and the Patriots wanted him to take something less than that. Blevins says he talked to Vinatieri about the value of staying in New England and someday retiring with Brady as one-uniform icons, but that his former student, at 32, was insistent on taking the long-term security.

He changed agents as he sought to nail down a deal. Over the years, the Patriots have made a cottage industry out of moving on from star players who either made or wanted to make a dollar or two more than the team thought they were worth, and as much as he loved being a Patriot and working with Belichick and Brady, Vinatieri said he was tired of working under the franchise’s terms.

Wellcome to the Monday Morning BM, just a word of warning your probably not prepared to handle the strong football takes and barrelfire NFL truths that you never knew your Mondays were missing. This column is written for and by a REAL fan of the NFL. Its designed to be read on your Monday Morning commode break after a long Sunday eating Authentic Baltimore Ravens Jersey bad-for-you food and drinking beers. If you care more about SPELLING then you do about TELLING theres the door because this columns not for you.

Coaching search season is here or as the Browns fans call it, their Los Angeles Rams Kids Jersey periodic reminder to change the batterys in the smoke detectors. Despite many big names like Chan Gaily, maybe Romeo Crennel, and a guy that met Joe Philbin one time, being linked to Clevelands vacancy, reader Mike points out that they need to just turn into the skid and bring in Steve Sarkisian.

You cant spell “coaching carousel” without “carouse.” The Browns just hired a coaching search firm and are paying them huge amounts of money to basicaly track down Doug Marrone and Pat Shurmurs cell phone numbers when they could just call Johnny Manzell and ask him to pass the phone to Steve if he’s awake. Sarkisian and Manzell would have great chemistry and mutual repsect and a unspoken connecton that they wrap walk-though the hell up early on Friday so they can make it down to the horseshoe, but not only that but they would also combine for some explosive onfield results.

Before joining the Chargers, Reich was a wide receivers coach for the Arizona Cardinals in 2012 and coached quarterbacks and wide receivers with the Indianapolis Colts in the three seasons prior. Reich entered the coaching ranks following a 13-year career in the NFL as a quarterback for the Bills, Panthers, Jets and Lions.

Expected to possibly follow Reich out of San Diego is defensive coordinator John Pagano, who is “particularly at risk” of losing his job, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.

The Chargers finished the 2015 season 4-12, their worst mark since 2003, one year before the team added quarterback Philip Rivers in the 2004 NFL Draft.

In the last five seasons, his on-base percentage when leading off an inning has been .439 or better three times. Even when it dropped, his two lowest marks were .357 in 2015 and .358 in 2012.Elite Carl Hagelin Jersey
In 2016, he had a .328/.439/.561 slash line when leading off an inning. Fowler did more than get on base in the first inning of Game 7 of the World Series. He homered to lead off the game.

Eaton was comparable. He slash-lined .341/.409/.578 with 10 home runs when leading off an inning in 2016. Eaton had consistently been a .350 to .360 on-base percentage player in those situations the previous three seasons. His 10 home runs when leading off an inning were three more than he had in the previous two seasons combined.

All along, Ramirez seemed like a logical choice to take the baton from Ortiz, the iconic slugger who served as the Red Sox’s DH for most of the past 14 years. But Ramirez also exceeded expectations as a first baseman last season, prompting speculation that the Red Sox might keep him at the position on a full-time basis.

Ramirez has thrived as a DH, albeit in a small sample size. In 36 games at the DH spot, Ramirez is 47-for-142 (.331) with 10 homers and a .634 slugging percentage.

“I just want to play and have my four at-bats, maybe five,” Ramirez said last week from a charity golf event in the Dominican Republic to benefit the David Ortiz Children’s Fund. “That’s all that matters. Just go out there and kick some butt. It doesn’t matter where I’m going to be playing.”Womens Chris Archer Jersey
Moreland played on Rangers teams that lost back-to-back World Series in 2010 and 2011. Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Moreland has been on his radar since he ran baseball operations for the Detroit Tigers.

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The Cleveland Browns, who have gone through six different quarterbacks this season, are right back where they started. Head coach Hue Jackson named Robert Griffin III the starter in a Week 14 home game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Browns are still looking for their first win of 2016, but Griffin believes he can help close out the season on a high note.

“It’s just an opportunity to play in the NFL with a group of guys who don’t deserve to be 0-12,” Griffin said Monday after practice. “I just want to come in, give the team as much of a spark as I possibly can, have fun, and hopefully we can go 4-0.¡±

Youth Dion Lewis Jersey Griffin was cleared last week to practice with the Browns after tearing his collarbone in a Week 1 loss again the Philadelphia Eagles. He only completed 12 of his 21 passes in that game.

Griffin, who signed a two-year, $15 million deal with the Browns as a free agent, wants to prove he has what it takes to be the starting quarterback in the future.

¡°I’m here to help this team, not just these last four weeks but into the future,¡± Griffin said. ¡°At least that¡¯s my hope and my wish.¡±

Now that Griffin will get the nod against a divisional foe in the Bengals, Jackson will evaluate the veteran dual-threat quarterback to see if he can be the team¡¯s starting quarterback next season.

¡°I am always looking to see who is going to be on the team as we move forward every game we play,¡± Jackson said last week. ¡°If he plays quarterback, yeah, we are evaluating him to see if he can be the quarterback.¡±

Griffin will have a chance to prove himself against the Bengals¡¯ 22nd-ranked defense. If we wants to get Cleveland its first win of the season, Griffin must use his speed and athletic ability to extend plays with his legs, without taking unnecessary hits.

Our fantasy football experts provide rankings to help you set lineups for Week 14.
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McShay: The tight end class is unusually strong with Alabama’s O.J. Howard (No. 23), Michigan’s Jake Butt (No. 26) and Hodges (No. 32) all in the Top 32 right now. All three are legit weapons in the passing game. The wide receiver class isn’t so strong at the top. Clemson’s Mike Williams is the only wide receiver in my top 15, but there’s plenty of depth in the middle rounds. USC’s JuJu Smith-Schuster, LSU’s Malachi Dupre, Washington’s John Ross, Virginia Tech’s Isaiah Ford, Western Michigan’s Corey Davis and Eastern Washington’s Cooper Kupp could all be top-60 picks.

WR Tavon Austin did not practice last week and ultimately missed his first game because of a chest injury. Rams coach Jeff Fisher said Austin and the other two starters who missed Sunday’s game — DE Robert Quinn, who was in concussion protocol, and LG Rodger Saffold, who is dealing with a hand injury — have a decent chance of playing against the Falcons. Austin’s health will be key.

Elite Youth Michael Raffl Jersey The Niners are still waiting for OLB Aaron Lynch to return from a sprained ankle he suffered before their bye week. Lynch has been practicing for the past few weeks but hasn’t been healthy enough to actually return on Sundays. San Francisco is in desperate need of pass-rushing help, and that’s what Lynch does best, but he won’t be back on the field until he is 100 percent. — Nick Wagoner

Back in Week 16, the Arizona Cardinals demolished the Green Bay Packers by a score of 38-8. The two teams meet again with much more at stake Saturday night on NBC in the Divisional round of the NFC playoffs.

For much of the year, Green Bay has struggled to produce much in the way of effective offense. The ground attack of Eddie Lacy and James Starks disappeared for weeks at a time, forcing the passing game to carry the load. While that normally wouldn’t present many issues for the Packers, the preseason loss of Jordy Nelson to a torn ACL along with injuries to Randall Cobb, Davante Adams, Ty Montgomery and James Jones limited the team’s effectiveness.

Limited Mens Tomas Tatar Jersey The Packers’ pass defense is one of the best in the league, but it clearly wasn’t a match for the Cardinals when these teams first faced off. Michael Floyd led all Arizona receivers with eight catches and 111 yards while John Brown and Larry Fitzgerald reeled in touchdowns.

Regular season games aren’t always an indicator of how the playoffs will go — the Patriots blew out the Jets 45-3 on Monday Night Football at the end of the 2010 campaign before losing to the Gang Green in January — but Arizona’s victory over Green Bay was exceptionally convincing.

Now that half of the AFC Championship has been set, we await the Saturday evening game to put either the Green Bay Packers or the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Championship game. The Packers beat Washington convincingly in the Wild Card, but the Cardinals are touchdown favorites for good reason. At 13-3, the Cards have proven they’re one of the best, most well-rounded teams in the NFL, and they beat the Packers 38-8 during the regular season.

The Divisional round will conclude Sunday. The Patriots will play the winner between Pittsburgh Steelers and the Denver Broncos. The Steelers visit the No. 1 seed significantly ailing on offense. Wide receiver Antonio Browns is out after suffering a concussion on a vicious hit by Vontaze Burfict in the Wild Card, and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is still dealing with a shoulder injury.Donovan Smith Elite Jersey
Before that game begins, the Seattle Seahawks will visit the Carolina Panthers in what may be the tightest matchup of the weekend. The Seahawks closed the regular season winning six of their last seven and are coming off a win in the bitter cold of Minnesota. They’re facing the only team as hot as they are in the NFC, however, and on the road once again. Russell Wilson vs. Cam Newton could be a duel for the ages.